1. Early life

2. Playing career

3. Management career
     1980s success    Later years  

4. After football

5. Honours
    Manager  Individual 

6. References

7. Further reading

8. External links

}}James Yuill McLean (born 2 August 1937) is a Scottish former football player, manager and director. He managed Dundee United between 1971 and 1993, becoming the longest-serving and most successful manager in the club's history, winning three major honours. He was also part-time assistant manager to Jock Stein with the Scotland national team for four years, including at the 1982 World Cup.

He led Dundee United to their only Scottish Football League title in 1982–83, following Scottish League Cup wins in 1979 and 1980. Under McLean, the club also lost in a further eight domestic cup finals. In European football, McLean's Dundee United reached the European Cup semi-finals in 1984 and the UEFA Cup final in 1987. He became a Dundee United director in 1984 and served as chairman between 1988 and 2000, when he resigned after assaulting a reporter. His involvement with the club finally ended in 2002 when he sold his majority shareholding.

His playing career included spells with Hamilton Academical, Clyde, Dundee and Kilmarnock as an inside forward. McLean is a member of a prominent footballing family; his brothers Tommy and Willie were also successful as players and managers.

McLean's achievements saw him win the first ever SFWA Manager of the Year award in 1987. He was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2005.

Early life

Jim McLean was born into a working-class family in Larkhall, Lanarkshire, on 2 August 1937,^[1] the second of three sons of Tom and Annie McLean, and grew up in the nearby village of Ashgill. His maternal grandfather William Yuille had been a professional footballer, playing for Rangers before the First World War. Tom McLean, a baker, had been a promising junior footballer before joining the Plymouth Brethren when he married. The three brothers, Willie, Jim and Tommy, who all went on to become professional football players and managers, had a strict religious upbringing.^[2] After leaving school, McLean served an apprenticeship as a joiner, a career he continued to pursue part-time for much of his football career.

Playing career

McLean, who played as an inside forward, began his football career with the local junior club, Larkhall Thistle. He was the third member of the family to play for Larkhall, after his father – who appeared for them in a Scottish Junior Cup semi-final in 1932 – and his brother Willie.^[3]

In 1956, he started his senior career with Hamilton Academical. He made more than 125 league appearances for Hamilton before leaving in 1960 to join Clyde. After playing in over 100 league games for Clyde, McLean was transferred to Dundee in 1965. His debut for Dundee came at Dens Park on 11 September 1965 when Dundee were beaten 5–0 by Dundee United, their heaviest ever defeat in a Dundee derby. After just under 100 league games, McLean moved on to his final club as a player, Kilmarnock, where he played alongside his brother Tommy. After making a total of 474 appearances and scoring 170 goals in his career, McLean retired from playing in 1970 and returned to Dundee as a coach in July of that year.

Management career

After he had been coaching at Dundee for 18 months, the club's local rivals Dundee United offered McLean the position of manager to replace the retiring Jerry Kerr in December 1971. He accepted the offer and began his managerial career at the age of 34. McLean immediately started a co-ordinated youth policy which was to produce many fine young players over the two decades which followed. In the short term, he used his knowledge of the Scottish scene to buy experienced players who would allow him to re-shape both the squad and the style of play in line with his approach to coaching.

Initially, the club's league form was average, remaining mostly mid-table for the next few years. McLean's first hint of the success he would later achieve was leading the club to its first Scottish Cup final in 1974 and, despite defeat, it proved an important psychological step in McLean's and the club's development. The success of the Cup run was built upon the following season with a finish of fourth place, the club's best finish in the First Division before league restructuring.

As McLean's youth policy began to bear fruit, the first of a number of talented young players began to emerge. McLean decided that his team should mount a challenge for the League championship in 1978–79, something of which the club, who had long lived in the shadow of McLean's former employers and rivals Dundee, had never previously proved capable of but after a poor finish in the first season of the new Premier Division, United started to prove that they were serious contenders for domestic honours.

In December 1979, McLean guided his team to triumph in the League Cup and retained it a year later. At the same time as the club was enjoying a high standing Scottish football, McLean was gradually building the club's reputation in Europe, with wins over sides like Barcelona, AS Monaco, Borussia Mönchengladbach, PSV Eindhoven, Anderlecht and Werder Bremen.

1980s success

Despite the progress he had made, few believed that McLean and United were potential Premier Division champions, Alex Ferguson's Aberdeen at that time were an emerging force in addition to the Old Firm. But in 1983, profiting from a late run which left those clubs in their wake, that is precisely what McLean's largely home-grown side did. At this time he additionally acted as assistant manager to Jock Stein with the Scotland national team.

Rangers, who had seen a decline in their fortunes over the previous few years, offered McLean the job as their manager in 1983. McLean engaged in early negotiations with the club; one of his main problems with the job offer was Rangers' policy of not signing Roman Catholics, a policy McLean found a ridiculous restriction for any employer as well as having signed many talented Catholics with Dundee United. Despite the Rangers chairman assuring him that this policy would be scrapped if he accepted the job, McLean decided that he was happy at Dundee United; his family were happily settled in the Broughty Ferry area of Dundee. McLean also turned down an offer to manage English club Newcastle United in June 1984.

Following his team's League success in 1983, Dundee United made their debut in the European Cup. McLean's counter-attacking tactics paired with a pressuring style brought some memorable results in that year's European campaign. McLean inspired United to the semi-finals of that year's competition, a penalty-kick denying them a place in the final. Three years later McLean took the team to a European final, this time in the UEFA Cup, although they were beaten by IFK Gothenburg of Sweden. For the rest of his managerial career McLean continued to secure United's high standing in domestic football, finishing outside the top four clubs only once, and taking the team to a further five Scottish Cup finals, but without winning the trophy.

Later years

The Dundee United board made McLean a director in 1984; four years later he became chairman and managing director, while still remaining the manager. He retained those joint responsibilities until stepping down as manager in July 1993, after a reign of almost 22 years. He remained as chairman after resigning as manager, stepping down from this role in October 2000 following an attack on BBC Scotland reporter John Barnes.^[4] McLean returned briefly in January 2002 as a director^[5] but departed a month later.^[6] Still a majority shareholder, McLean sold his 42% stake to Eddie Thompson in October 2002, severing his Tannadice ties permanently after more than 30 years.^[7]

After football

McLean formerly contributed a regular column to the Daily Record newspaper, giving his views on football.

In October 2006, McLean criticised Eddie Thompson's running of Dundee United in his column, saying he had been a "disaster for the club". This led to the club withdrawing McLean's access "privileges" at Tannadice.^[8]

McLean was awarded an honorary doctor of law degree by the University of Dundee in 2011, in recognition of his managerial achievements.^[9] He was inducted into the Dundee United Hall of Fame in 2015, with the club describing him as "unquestionably, the most successful manager in the club's history, and unlikely to ever be surpassed".^[10] As of August 2018, a group of United supporters are organising a fundraising scheme in order to build a statue of McLean outside Tannadice.^[11]

Honours

Manager

Dundee United

• Scottish Premier Division : 1982–83
• Scottish League Cup : 1979–80, 1980–81

Individual

• SFWA Manager of the Year: 1987
• Scottish Football Hall of Fame: 2005

References

Further reading

• {{cite book|last1=McLean|first1=Jim|last2=Gallacher|first2=Ken|title=Jousting With Giants : the Jim McLean Story|date=1987|publisher=Mainstream|location=Edinburgh|isbn=1-85158-088-3}}

External links

• {{NeilBrownPlayers|player4/jimmclean}}

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